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ONE 9 • TheatreSpace: 45 and a Half Miles

(The cafe is in ruins [from the bomb blast]. Tables and chairs [litter the scene.] Rubble and a fine layer of dust cover everything. Yellow police tape covers the door. […] Bodies [lie covered with blankets.] A Gendarme flits between them, checking each for identification. Henry enters, ducking under the tape. The Gendarme sees him.)

What do I do right now, Alice? Knowing what I know. What do I do right now?

Alice

Please.

Henry

Why? What do I owe you? What do I owe him? What do I owe you? Do I have loyalty to you? Why? Why, when theone man I know who had loyalty to… to… to humanity above all else. Above a flag, above a person, above everything, he saw the futility of what people do to each other. Why, when my best friend is dead because of you and your fucking cause, do I have loyalty tothat cause? What do I owe that cause? What do I owe you?

Alice

Nothing.

Henry

What does it mean? What does it accomplish? Vindication? Pride? What’s it for? We get independence tomorrow? We rejoin Britain? We get to call ourselves British. We get the Union Jack flying over Westminster again. My best friend is still dead. My life won’t be better for a Union Jack flying over Westminster. Not with Francois dead. My life was better this morning than it is now. The world was better this morning than it is now.

Alice

Henry, my Dad wasn’t—

Henry

No? But this is what he stands for. Why shouldn’t I walk over to that Gendarme and tell him everything he needs to know. I walk over there and tell him everything. Everything about you and your Dad and […] give the government everything they need to discredit the BNP so much that they won’t recover for twenty years.

Alice

I won’t let you.

(She pulls a gun out of her pocket and points it at Henry.)

I won’t let you.

Henry

Did you know you placed every person on the planet equidistantly from each other, there’d be 45 and a half miles from you to the next person?

Alice

What?

Henry

Francois was six foot tall. That means if he stood at the beach and looked out to the horizon, that was three miles away. The horizon is three miles away, and the nearest person would bemore than 42 miles further away than that. 42 miles further than the horizon. But we kill each other over what we want to call that 45 miles. Do you want to kill me over what you call your 45 miles? You’d kill me for the distance between you and the next person. We’re all alone in the world Alice. There are so few of us and we’re killing each other. We’re killing each other for the name of the distance between us and the next person. We’re killingeach other for 45 miles of isolation. Everyone of us has walked 45 miles to find each other. If we kill each other, we have to do it again. We’ve come together, you and I. Are you going to kill me?

Alice

I don’t know what to do.

Henry

Neither do I.

Gendarme

Excuse moi? Madame, monsieur, tres desole, however I am going to have to ask you to vacate the premises. This is a crime scene, I cannot risk you contaminating it. My apologies.

Henry

Yes officer.

(Henry and Alice begin to leave. Suddenly, Henrystops and addresses the Gendarme.)

Excuse me, sir. But might I ask where you’re from?

Gendarme

Where I am from?

Henry

Yes.

Gendarme

I was born in a small town called Saint-Omer. It isabout 40 kilometres from Calais.